feisty

[MaryAnnSmotheredinchocolate]

Am sick of the over use of this word...

(From here)

'spirited', 'assertive', 'able to speak up for oneself' - even if only "usually applied to women" I don't think those are negative characteristics.

Shaw, the formidable man

Arthur Miller, "an extraordinarily formidable man"

I have never considered it applied only to "matrons"!

What does decimate mean now?

Wiped out!!!

Oh . I didn't know.

It couldn't be much wronger, really - I wonder if it's because it sounds similar to destroy?

From that Tiscali dictionary page again.

Wendy I think you have just shown yourself the epitome of formidation

& I am too squished to argue

this time

But Wendy to my mind feisty is a word used by people in power to describe women who are disempowered (another word I hate). So 'spirited', 'assertive', 'able to speak up for oneself' are all very well but not if they don't get you anywhere against someone who has no intention of relinquishing their power over you. Am I making any sense at all? Basically I agree with Iorek too . Yeah, exactly, what Iorek said

My youngest (boy) is referred to as feisty.

They often refer to their sporting opponents as formidable.

I don't see it is necessarily a derogatory term, although realise that it can be.

Wendy and unknownrebel, yes you are right - formidable is used in lots of ways, and is different from feisty in that sense.

However, when used to describe mature women it very often comes with an ironic undertone suggestive of bossiness, rather than being a term of genuine respect as it was in those articles on Shaw and Miller.

Feisty on the other hand is almost always used to convey a degree of assertiveness/spiritedness that is perceived as surprising in a person from whom a greater degree of obedience would normally be expected - generally a woman, a horse or a child.

unknown- people are always describing ds3 (my youngest too) as feisty. TBH it describes him well - he is ill-tempered, pugnacious, troublesome and difficult (from dictionary.com).

I suppose what I object to is it being used to describe any woman who is not a push over or has character/guts etc...it just seems so lazy to resort to that word all the time

may I suggest 'arsey'? I know it has had slightly aggressive connotations but - with an admiring tone of voice and contextualized by a generally formidablist outlook - it's rather charming.

arsey I like

I consider feisty to be the description of a romantic heroine immediately preceding the breaking of her will/hymen.

lol onebat. You been on the Georgette Heyer again?

I'd have arsey over feisty any day.

Ah, now pugnacious is not a word I like.

I would prefer to use some of the other terms highlighted yurt, although your description does describe my DS3 quite well.

and yes, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about - someone who is not as demure as they are supposed to be.

I have been described as arsey.....

I would prefer feisty, lol.

I like "contextualised by a generally formidablist outlook" very very much.

See the National Portrait Gallery Bluestocking exhibition (though it could be better: separate thread) for further details.

I can't imagine ever describing a boy as feisty. I would say he was a bit of a villain if withing earshot of his doting mother (would call him an out of control little shit if I was describing him out of earshot of the mother, obviously )

He's neither!

He's just....feisty!

Feisty means having a mercurial temper; liable to fly off the handle if asked what time it is in an irritating way.

what time is it Swedes?

Does it?

That wouldn't be my interpretation.